Two days later

Trixan dug her hand into the pocket of her gym trousers and took out two round devices as small as the buttons of a shirt.

“What are those?” Narvari asked, looking at the devices curiously.

“Simulation transmitters.”

Before Narvari could ask what kind of sci-fi nonsense Trixan was on about, the Elder glued a transmitter into Narvari’s neck. Suddenly, the surroundings of the classroom were no more. Instead, Narvari found herself standing in a vast sandy desert.

Dunes stood high as mountains everywhere. The heat threatened to burn her alive. She looked around in shock. Where the hell was she? And where was Trixan? All she could see was sand as far as the eye could reach.

“Trixan,” she shouted. “Trixan. Where are you?” Her throat ran dry. She was not sure if it was from the searing heat or the anxiety building up within her. “Trixan-”

“Over here.”

Narvari quickly turned around. “What the…” she whispered as the embodiment of Trixan gradually appeared before her eyes. Was this a mirage? No. It seemed more like a hologram. After a few seconds, Trixan’s body finally materialized. The real Trixan. Was it thought? She thought she could never be surprised by Draghein School. She couldn’t be so wrong.

“Sorry about that, my dear.” Trixan smiled. “I had to make sure our bodies outside the simulation were safe.”

“We are in a simulation?” Narvari’s eyes widened. Someday, she might actually die of shock in this school.

“Of course, my dear. That’s what simulation transmitters are for.”

“Wait. Did you say you had to keep our bodies outside the simulation safe?”

Trixan nodded. “We may not be here physically. But we are here mentally. Everything we feel in this simulation is real to our brain.”

Their consciousness was actually in a simulation, Narvari thought. This was insane.

“This is your final lesson as a rookie,” said Trixan. “Consider this a mini-test before your actual Finals.”

“A mini test?”

“Yes, my dear. Today’s lesson involves applying everything you have learned. And you, my dear, are going to do that by capturing demons stronger than you.”

Narvari narrowed her eyes. “I thought we vanquish demons, not capture them.”

“Well, yes, my dear. But when a demon is too powerful to vanquish and all you can do is weaken it temporarily, your best course of action is to capture it,” said Trixan. “Besides, sometimes we may also need information from them. And we can’t possibly do that when they are dead, can we?”

“Right. Where are the demons anyway?”

“No rush, my dear.” The Elder opened her right palm and a golden cube, half the size of a Rubik’s Cube, appeared.

Narvari blinked rapidly. Where the hell had it come from? Was this an effect of the simulation? She scrutinized the cube. It was so shiny like it was made of pure gold. Intricate markings in a strange language were inscribed on all six faces of the cube.

“This,” said Trixan, “is a holy cage. Do you remember what I said about fortifying specific parts of the body with sacred energy?”

“Yes. You called it sacred body.”

“Good.” She nodded. “Other than the body, sacred energy is also used to fortify objects. Objects fortified by sacred energy become holy objects.”

“So a holy cage is an example of a holy object.”

“Yes, my dear. We capture demons using a holy cage.”

“Seriously? This small thing?” Narvari gawked at the cube.

If Trixan clasped her fingers around the cube, the entire thing would be hidden in her palm. How could something that tiny hold a demon? Narvari had visited the library during most of her free time and avidly read about several demons. Most of the demons she read about were monstrous in size. A significant number were also relatively smaller. None of them, however, was small enough to fit into this tiny box. How was something this small a cage for demons?

“They are not as small as they look, my dear. They defy the laws of space in the Outer Sphere. This is an entire prison I hold in my hand.”

Hmm. Strangely, it wasn’t the strangest thing she’d heard. “And a holy cage is strong enough to hold a demon?”

Trixan nodded. “The inside of a holy cage is coated with a thin layer of sacred energy to keep the demon docile but not enough to vanquish them. The outside is fortified with the purest and most potent form of sacred energy. It’s impossible for a demon, irrespective of its order, to escape from the cage.”

Narvari raised a brow. “Even a fifteenth-order demon?”

“Especially a fifteenth-order demon.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Damn.” That was one powerful prison.

“Of course, being actually capable of capturing a fifteenth-order demon into the holy cage is a different issue.”

“Right.” Obviously, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. “So how do you get a demon inside?”

Trixan removed something from the top of the cube. It was a golden disc even smaller than the cube. Trixan held it between her fingers like a coin. A rumbling reverberated in the distance and a massive gust of sand rose into the air. Narvari almost lost her balance as the ground shook violently.

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“Focus, my dear.” Trixan stood still, watching the huge vortex of sand towering into the cloudless skies. She didn’t seem at all perturbed by the commotion.

A roar, that seemed to be coming from more than one creature, surged forth like the rush of many waters. Whatever had made that sound must have the largest larynx in the world, Narvari thought. A gigantic serpentine body burrowed out of the ground. The thickness of the demon’s snakelike body was larger than the largest constrictors Narvari had ever seen. The body of the snake demon coiled endlessly giving it the appearance of a small mountain. Just as Narvari was wondering where the head of the snake was, something long and thick, like the rest of the snake’s green body, shot out of the ground.

Narvari’s heart sank when she saw the faces of the demon for the first time. This was something right out of a nightmare. The demon’s long serpentine body separated into three different necks, each one long and scaly like the rest of its deep green body. On each neck sat the massive head of something that looked human, but at the same time too monstrous to be human. Each head had one large eye and a massive cave-like mouth. All the mouths roared at the same time, and Narvari immediately covered her ears. Even then she feared it would rupture her eardrums.

Narvari had thought this particular demon looked scary in the books. Nothing could have prepared her for the sheer horror of seeing the real thing. “A myuren.” Narvari gaped at the monstrosity.

“Good. You’ve been reading.” Trixan smiled.

How was this woman so relaxed in the presence of a myuren? They were seventh-order demons that lived underground in deserts. Though they were strong enough to crush a mountain with their powerful boneless body, that was not the scariest thing about them.

“Never be intimidated by a demon’s form, my dear,” Trixan’s voice snapped her back to reality. “You have already lost when you give in to fear.

Narvari nodded, breathing in and out slowly to keep herself under control. “How are you going to capture it?”

“Turn on your sacred vision and tell me what you see.”

Inhaling deeply, Narvari turned on her sacred vision and gazed at the myuren. At first, there was nothing different about the demon, but when Narvari looked intently, she saw a red speck in each of the demon’s yellow eyes. Those were not there before.

“There are red dots in the eyes.”

“Yes. Those are the demon’s weak points.” Trixan nodded. “A relatively weaker savaz cannot vanquish a demon because the sacros it possesses is not pure and potent enough. So, the demon regenerates faster than the sacred energy kills them. With sacred vision, however, you can directly target the demon’s weak points with Trinity and slow down their regeneration. This doesn’t vanquish the demon, but it temporarily weakens it and makes it easier to capture.” Trixan paused, gazing at Narvari intently. “If the gap between your order and the demon’s order is too great, it will be better to resort to elema to weaken them.”

“But I don’t have elema.”

“I know, my dear.”

Trixan’s serene vibe instantly vanished as soon as her silver sacros appeared around her. She held the holy cage in her left hand and the golden disc in her right. Then she flipped the golden coin in the air.

“This is a halo,” she said. “It’s used in conjunction with the holy cage.”

Before catching the halo in midair, she set it ablaze with her silver sacros. She flipped the halo into the air again, but this time, it never came down. It just levitated in midair, gravity completely useless against it.

“As long as I have my sacros around the halo, I can control it however I want. This, my dear, is the key to capturing a demon.” The halo moved in any direction Trixan moved her hand. With a mere gesture of a finger, the halo soared through the air with the speed of a bullet, racing towards the myuren. When did Trixan disappear by her side, thought Narvari? The woman was running toward the demon.

The demon roared wildly, sending a huge tail toward Trixan. But she easily dodged out of the way while deftly controlling the halo. What was Trixan seeking to achieve with that thing?

All three mouths of the demon opened at the same time and spurted out a huge fountain of purple liquid. The liquid, thick as magma, would have hit Trixan had she not swerved out of its way. The golden brown sand sizzled and darkened like tar as soon as the purple liquid touched it. This was what Narvari had been afraid of all this while. The myuren’s poison. Trixan, on the other hand, didn’t look bothered at all. If anything, she looked thrilled by what she was doing.

The Elder kept disappearing and reappearing so fast that Narvari could not even keep up with her speed.

“Okay, enough showing off.” Narvari heard Trixan’s amused voice in her head. “Are you watching this, my dear?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Trixan halted. with a single move of her hand, the halo went straight to one of the demon’s heads freezing the demon instantly. It was as if someone had just pressed pause on the demon’s existence.

“What just happened?” Narvari asked when Trixan reappeared by her side.

“The halo contains sacred energy that paralyzes demons.” Trixan showed the golden cube to Narvari. “To capture a demon, the goal is to get the halo on the demon’s body. Once that happens, you press this button below the holy cage.”

Suddenly, the demon’s body was quickly sucked into the holy cage. It was like the demon’s body had transformed into some kind of a dark mist and the holy cage was a vacuum cleaner sucking in the demon. In mere seconds, the giant snake demon had completely been absorbed by the holy cage. The halo flew back and fixed itself on top of the holy cage and Trixan’s sacros disappeared.

“Demon captured.” Trixan smiled. “Your turn, my dear.”

“What? Me?”

“Yes, you, my dear. Before you qualify as a class five vanquisher, you need to know how to capture a demon at least one order higher than you. But I have to warn you, it will not be easy. This is just a simulation so I slowed down everything so you can see what is happening.”

This is slow? Is this a joke?

“In real life,” Trixan continued, “demons can easily recognize a halo because of the sacred energy so they will do anything to get away from it. That includes attempting to kill you. If the demon is stronger and faster, they just might succeed. But you, my dear,” Trixan held Narvari’s shoulder, “are not what you used to be a month ago. You are a lot stronger now.” Trixan put the holy cage in Narvari’s hand. “You’ve been training hard for this. As a vanquisher with a fifth-order savaz, a lot will be expected from you. Even if you can’t vanquish a seventh-order demon, you should be able to capture one. This simulation is going to teach you just that and you are not getting out of it until you get it right.”

Narvari nodded, clasping her hand around the holy cage. She removed the halo. Her black and red sacros appeared around her hand. Narvari focused intently on the halo until her sacros burned around the halo. Now that the halo contained her sacros, she easily controlled it.

“Good.” Trixan nodded. “Now remember, although this simulation is not real, everything you feel here is real.”

Narvari widened her eyes. “Are you saying I can actually die in here?”

Trixan smiled. “I guess you’ll have to try not to get killed then.” Her body vanished out of the simulation leaving Narvari alone in the vast arid desert.

What the hell?

A rumbling beneath the sandy ground put Narvari’s senses on high alert. She clenched her jaws, bracing herself for the demon. She could do this.